A quick visit to Paxton Pits gets me Yellow Brain...

I had a couple of spare hours yesterday afternoon. The day had started with bright sunshine, but by lunchtime the clouds had rolled in, and it was cool and damp. I decided to pop down to a local nature reserve, Paxton Pits.

I headed for the first hide on the Heronry trail and enjoyed distant views of a pair of goosanders, plus plenty of tufted ducks, mallards and shovellers. Spring was in the air, and the cormorants were nest-building. Walking along to the next hide, I found a goldcrest flitting around a patch of brambles, completely unconcerned by me being there just a few feet away.  I did some quick ink sketches (and added colour later on when I was back at home).

Heading back out from the hide, a patch of gold caught my eye - some kind of fungus growing on the damp wood of a bench. No time to sit and sketch, but I grabbed a quick photo so that I might try to ID it back home.

I found a prime candidate in my excellent Roger Phillips Mushrooms book - the gloriously named Yellow Brain, Tremella mesenterica. I posted the pic in the British & Irish Fungi group on facebook, and learned that this jelly fungus might not in fact be Tremella mesenterica, but could be a different species, Tremella aurantia. These fungi are parasitic, and feed on different types of crust (another fungus type). Without IDing the crust I can't be sure which one this is, but it's still a real eye-catcher on a gloomy day!